Takeshita's Party Fails Election Test

February 13, 1989|By New York Times

TOKYO — Prime Minister Noboru Takeshita suffered a political setback Sunday night when his party's candidate lost an election seen as a test of public anger about a stock scandal and a recently enacted sales tax.

The governing Liberal Democratic Party lost a seat in the legislature's upper house to the opposition Japan Socialist Party in an election held in the southern prefecture of Fukuoka.

The incumbent Liberal Democratic legislator died in December, and the campaign focused almost exclusively on the Recruit stock scandal, the sales tax and recent moves to open Japan's agricultural markets.

The Liberal Democrats lost decisively Sunday, drawing about half as many votes as they had in the upper house election in Fukuoka in 1986.

The defeat touches off a crisis for Takeshita and his party. The stock scandal has forced the resignation of three members of his Cabinet, and public approval ratings of his government have dropped to all-time lows. An emboldened opposition will now be more likely to delay approval of the budget in return for concessions.

Political commentators Sunday speculated that Takeshita would have to hold elections this summer in both houses of Parliament. Upper house elections are due this summer, but Takeshita is not legally bound to call elections for the more influential lower house until next year.

''This was an election of the people versus the Takeshita Cabinet,'' said Takako Doi, chairwoman of the Japan Socialist Party.